Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3226 to 3250 of 4997 results

John 11:38-44

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... and how deeply he loves. Martin Luther said it so well in a sermon that he preached in 1518 on this very gospel story. About the love that Jesus showed Lazarus, Lazarus' family, and us, Luther said: "Let us therefore learn to know from the gospel how kindly Christ deals with us; then we shall without a doubt love him and avoid sinning and so see everything in a different light." Experiencing the love of Christ like we can in this gospel story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead makes you love Christ ...

3227. When God’s “No” Means “Yes”

Habakkuk 1:1-4, Habakkuk 2:2-20

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... , hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries and millenia. For some people time passes slowly. They are bored. They are suffering. They are waiting. For other people time passes quickly. They are in love. They are excited about the present moment. Kairos is another kind of time, essentially a crisis time. It is not measured like chronological time in seconds and minutes but rather it is the time when something new can happen. Just as there is a right time for the farmer to sow his seed, for the ...

3228. Are You Asking The Right Questions?

Zechariah 7:1-14

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... of devotion, their blindness to poor, hurting and neglected people in their midst? Zechariah, like Amos and Micah, called for ethical righteousness. More important than a ritual fast that had lost its original intent was the charge to render true judgments, to show kindness and mercy, to refrain from oppressing weaker persons and not to devise evil in their hearts (7:8-10). What about our own day? Are we asking the right questions? Are we really absorbed in the nature and function of our religious devotion ...

3229. Leaping For Joy

Malachi 4:1-6

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... or the plate.”3 Whoever we are -- a manager, an athlete, a writer or someone else -- we need to learn how to play and not take life too seriously. What is play for you? Golf? Snorkeling? Walking? Running? Mountain climbing? Gardening? We all require some kind of diversion to give us a balanced life, and even more, to prepare us for playing in that great Day of the Lord. Leaping For Joy Implies Adventure Leaping for joy not only implies celebration and play but it also implies adventure. The leaping calves ...

3230. The Road To Nazareth

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... have often wondered where home was - and if he got there and what happened when he arrived. Immediately after his baptism and his time in the wilderness the first thing Jesus did was to head for home, the town of Nazareth. Oh, you remember Nazareth. It was a two-bit kind of town. It was a town no one really thought much of. It was a town where you would not really want to live. And people often said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Jesus did. He came out of Nazareth and now he is on his way back ...

3231. The Road To Samaria

John 4:5-42

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... about him. Why do you think those gospel writers recorded these events? Because they wanted all Christians to know that once you meet Jesus you cannot keep it a secret. You simply must go tell someone about it. That is what it means to be a Christian. That is the kind of response we are supposed to make. I know a man who is a friend of John Stewart, who was a part of the Kingston Trio. John Stewart said to this man, "God speaks to each of us a little differently, hoping we will tell each other." That is the ...

3232. Wedding: Five Cs Spell Marriage

John 2:1-11

Sermon Aid

Hollis A. Miller

... , prayer, and a daily time of devotions together? Remember that your hope for this marriage is built on Christ and that all other ground is sinking and, i.e., it goes for nothing. The second word is caring. By this I really mean love and compassion and kindness. The motto for the Hallmark card people is, “When you care enough to send the very best.” Well, we have a Hallmark God, one who “cared enough to send the very best.” And that very best was his own Son, Jesus. Strive to emulate his love, his ...

3233. "Something's Coming"

Isaiah 2:1-5

Sermon

Robert Beringer

... angels of heaven know when it is coming. You see, Isaiah's vision is based on the faith that this world will never know peace and harmony and goodwill until all human beings acknowledge God as their Sovereign Lord. Leaving God out of our lives gives us the kind of world we know today. But, putting God at the center of our thinking and planning and living, we can even now begin to catch a foretaste of the great and wondrous time when Christ will be Lord of all. That foretaste is really what we celebrate on ...

3234. Rejoice In The Lord

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Robert Beringer

... have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined." That was Isaiah's poetic way of affirming that God is very much alive and at work in the world. It is so easy for us to forget that in the kind of world that lives each day in the shadow of nuclear, chemical or biological warfare. If our human greed and selfishness don't destroy us, the population explosion and our pollution of the earth surely will. We know what it is to walk in darkness, and that is why we ...

3235. The Illusion Of Neutrality

Deuteronomy 30:11-20

Sermon

Robert Beringer

... both camps. The man is a moral acrobat! In all of life's major choices, he straddles the fence, believing in nothing, caring for nothing, loving nothing, and remaining alive, only because he has nothing worth dying for in his empty life. Our modern society has made a kind of virtue out of openness and neutrality, but how sad it is to meet someone who lives with this form of self-deception. I once met a woman who told me that she would not become a Christian because there were too many obstacles in the path ...

3236. God's Christmas Greeting

Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon

Robert Beringer

... had been turned upside down. Their daily lives were filled with injustice and conflict, and there was little in which they could take courage. But Isaiah was chosen of God to bring a message of good news, and the prophet's beautiful vision may well be the same kind of message God wishes to send us in this Advent Season. 1. Hope In The Midst Of Despair Isaiah's first words are words of hope in the midst of despairing times: "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse ...." Now this is much more ...

3237. What Christmas Is About

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Robert Beringer

... came home drunk, she would put him to bed, care for him and continue her efforts to get him some help. One day a newcomer to the neighborhood asked this woman why she continued to live with her husband. "It seems," said the neighbor, "as if he never says a kind word to you, never even treats you as a human being." With a knowing smile, Mrs. Adams responded, "I know what you say is true, but he wasn't always like that. The simple truth is, I still love him and cannot picture my life without him." How much ...

3238. Questions

Matthew 4:18-22

Sermon

John Jamison

... At once they left their nets and followed him." They also left their families, a pretty good-sized fishing business, their home, and whatever plans they had made for their future. I have to wonder if as they followed him out of town they didn't look at each other, kind of awkwardly, and wonder inside, "Can I do this? Can I really do this? Where is this going to end up? What about the boats? What about the family? Oh Lord, what have I gotten myself into?" I have to be honest with you and admit that I don't ...

3239. Ka-Chang

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

John Jamison

... the words they heard were a little less like "Blessed art thou" and sounded a whole lot more like "ka-chang!" Before we begin our wondering, however, let's take a moment to meet the rest of the players. That little group on the right, standing off, kind of by themselves, are the Pharisees. They are an interesting group. They agree with a lot of what they have heard Jesus say. They believe in a resurrection from the dead, and caring for the poor, and that God can, and does, heal. However, uppermost in their ...

3240. Coming Back Down

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

John Jamison

... of voice sometimes. When they looked back up, it was over. Jesus had started toward the trail back down the mountain. But I think Peter would like to have stayed. It happens that way. Some here this morning have had that kind of experience. That time in your life when suddenly you knew who Jesus was, and found that everything in the world looked different now that you recognized him. Suddenly everything made sense, and the things that didn't make sense didn't matter. And you really wished you could stay ...

3241. The Man In The River

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

John Jamison

... one door south, was also locked up tight. And on the other side, Jesse's Grain Supply, where they custom grind 23 different kinds of flour, the grinding wheels were silent. And the streets. Here it was, mid-morning and the streets were almost bare. This was ... Judea, and from the villages up and down the river valley. I did recognize several from Jerusalem. That's when I saw you. Remember, we kind of waved a little wave and nodded. Then I saw him. My first thought was that he was a mousy sort of guy. I mean ...

3242. Mary Christmas

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

John Jamison

... with a big angel. He had news. It traveled fast. Nazareth was just a small place, perhaps 15 or 20 families living there, and any news traveled quickly. This news would have set a record. You see, Mary was betrothed. She was kind of married, but not really married. It was kind of an engagement, but more than an engagement. She and Joseph were not living together yet, but if Joseph would have died, Mary would have been considered a widow. It was a firm and honorable commitment. Mary's news would definitely ...

3243. The True Story of The Magi (Old Title: Just The Facts)

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

John Jamison

... wise men to the baby, it fell from the sky and dropped down into the city well of Bethlehem. According to some legend, that star is there to this day, and can sometimes still be seen by those whose hearts are pure and clean. It's a pretty story. It kind of makes you feel warm inside. There are other legends about this story of the wise men from the east. For instance, how many wise men were there? In the old days in the east, they believed that there were 12 men who made the journey, but now most everyone ...

3244. THE HARD WORKER

John 11:7-8, 14-16

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... one of the hardest workers and closest friends of Jesus. His name was Thomas and in the days of Jesus it was kind of a nickname that meant, "the twin." How many of you know what it means to be a twin? It means being ... had died, the rest of the apostles spoke about the danger, but Thomas talked about going even if he had to die because he went. Jesus sure appreciated that kind of friendship. I told you that Thomas was a hard worker, so let me tell you why I said that. There is a story about a missionary who ...

3245. Love Without Demand

Ruth 1:1-22

Sermon

Sims Robert

... us give love away in order to receive it. We don’t give it freely. We give with strings attached. Many of our expressions of love are designed to reap a reward and to gain a payoff. We touch because we need to be touched. We are kind because we want somebody to be kind to us. We help another because we want them to be in our debt. We give our money as a way of exercising control. Every time we give with the expectation, in fact, with the demand of a return, we transform love into manipulation and we use ...

3246. Life Isn’t Fair

Amos 5:18-27

Sermon

Sims Robert

... what is fair to what is good. Though it was difficult for the people of Israel, they had to learn that God is good to everyone. His love is not limited to an exclusive few. There is not a certain group of people who are our kind of people. All people are our kind of people. Jesus said so in the gospel of John. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that if anyone believes in him, they will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).” The New English translates the text, “… that ...

3247. A Good Thing To Know

Luke 19:11-27

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... , the one about the faithfulness of the servants, narrows our focus to the third of the servants who reports to the king. At issue are the skill, the courage, the loyalty, the love and the respect of the servant for his king. But this third servant has no kind thing to say for the king - or to him, for that matter - when he returns! He is judged by the king to be "wicked" because he has disobeyed the king's instructions to "trade" or "do business" with the money entrusted. Even a conservative, acting out of ...

3248. Chosen For Good News

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... gather up spit in her throat and say, “Mother, I just spit in your shoes!” Time passed. “Mother, I just spit on your new dress.” Time passed. No sound. Mother finally asked, “Honey, what are you doing in there?” “I’m waiting for more spit!” That’s the kind of life we can live. We can live our whole life waiting for more spit. That is, looking at ways that we might get even, get revenge, get our share, show them. However, when we get full awareness of what love God has had for us from the ...

3249. The Vine And The Branches

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... , working in the women’s organization, we don’t do it for our own gratification, but for God’s. He is central; he is our vine, and from him we get our life. When we make decisions about education, where to spend our money, whom to choose as friends, what kind of lifestyle to follow, we do it with God as central. What is appropriate for one of his people is what we consider. If God is our vine and we are his branches, then how we treat the people who live next to us becomes a religious issue. How we ...

3250. For a Mother Who Died in Traffic

John 14:1-4

Eulogy

William Luoma

... unknown quantity. We never know what may come our way. In the midst of all this uncertainty, the Christian faith makes a strange kind of sense. It is exactly for this fragile, precarious, and uncertain life, that God gives a message of assurance. He seems to ... from the dead. Jesus made it plain. He said, "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life; no one else can make that kind of a promise. He invites you and me to trust him completely. Today we thank God for K_ and her faith. We give thanks for all that ...

Showing results